As is well known, gloves adapted to fit the human hand have been used for work and for purposes relating to cold weather recreation for many years. Recently, however, gloves have also come into widespread use in sports such as football, baseball, and racquetball. Athletic gloves used in these sports are generally made of a very thin, supple material, such as split leather. Although such gloves were initially used as protection for the hands of the athlete against cold and injury, many athletes have come to believe that the use of properly-designed gloves can enhance their athletic performance.
One of the most essential characteristics of an athletic glove when used in sports related activities pertains to the gripping ability of the glove. Presently, an obstacle to even more widespread acceptance of gloves for use in many sports is the inability of currently-known and marketed gloves to provide an adequate grip under a wide range of conditions. In this regard, though many existing leather gloves can provide excellent feel, finger motion, protection and tactile response, the gripping characteristics of such gloves are generally significantly inferior to the bare human hand.
One category of currently-known athletic gloves comprise a back piece made of a synthetic stretch fabric and a palm piece made of leather which is thoroughly impregnated with a sticky liquid material. Although such "tackified" leather gloves are a significant improvement over the gripping ability of conventional leather gloves, such gloves have caused some wearers to complain about the somewhat wet, oily tacky feel of the interior of the glove against their skin attributable to the tacky material impregnating the leather palm material and thereby being present on both the inside and outside of the palm of the glove. In this respect, these gloves also tend to leave an objectionable tacky residue on the hand and on the objects with which the glove comes in contact.
Another category of athletic gloves use rubber as the major structural material. One such glove comprises a palm portion made of a web of foam neoprene rubber which is lines on the inside with a nylon material. Such nylon-lined foam neoprene is commonly used in wetsuits and wetsuit gloves intended for water sports such as scuba diving, water skiing and surfing. Though the neoprene foam palm of gloves of this prior art variety provides non-slip gripping characteristics under many conditions, the nylon lining of such gloves has a tendency to slip against the wearer's palm, thus interfering with the sureness and feel of the grip. Additionally, because of the non-absorbtivity of the nylon and the water-vapor barrier characteristics of the foam neoprene, sweaty palms are also a potential problem when using such gloves. Further, such neoprene material acts as an absorbant sponge collecting moisture during use which detracts from gripping strength.
One additional category of currently-known prior art gloves are work gloves which include mechanical means on characteristics. One such work glove comprises a cotton work glove which includes a plurality of small dots of polymer material disposed on the palm piece to facilitate improved gripping. Such a glove however is unsatisfactory for sports situations due to the limited tactile characteristics of the glove, the tendency of cotton to slip against the skin, interference with the dexterity of the wearer, and the tendency of the small polymer dots on the palm to pull off of the glove.
Accordingly, there is a substantial need in the art for an athletic glove having improved gripping characteristics without the drawbacks associated with many prior art gloves.